Apple Announces MacBook Pro

Perhaps the iBooks will feature the same Core Duo processor, but be clocked significantly lower -- 1.2 to 1.6GHz range. The iBooks' battery life would then be a selling point of the computer -- like it was with the iPod photo over the monochrome 4th generation iPod (what was it -- like 8 to 10 hours vs. 15 hours on the photo model?).

Steve showed us that the G4 scored ~0.26 on performance per watt, while the Core Duo scored over 1.0. They boosted the brightness (and quality?) of the screen, though, so I'd expect the battery life to be somewhere close to what it is currently... so while the processor may be more power efficient (is it?), the screen surely sucks up more power than previous generations. Hopefully we'll know in early February!
 
I own a G4 Cube. I haven't bought anything from Apple since the Cube except upgrades to OS X ( and I didn't buy Tiger because I thought it wasn't worth $120 ), and a few keyboards. When I grew dissatisfied with the level of maturity of OS X, I took the nick name "waiting_for_OSX" and I have since made many complaints about OS X and Apple hardware on this website.

OS X has improved a lot, but I wish it had a centralized uninstaller like Windows XP. I'm sure some people will say we don't need one but, we do. Some programs keep data in seperate files in seperate directories and I don't want to hunt that junk down to delete it.

Upon hearing that Apple is finally switching to Intel, I decided to take another look. I haven't been this excited about a computer since the day I bought my Cube. The MacBook Pro is great! I compared the price and features against Alienware and Apple finished looking equally matched with a better design. At this time, I truely believe that Apple-Intel hardware is the best overall PC hardware. For my needs, this computer has no flaws.

So two hours after Jobs anounced the MacBook Pro, I put down my $2668.00 and bought one! Am I worried about battery life? No, I'm buying this as a desktop replacement so it's going to plugged in most of the time. According to the Apple website, the shipping date will be February 15, which means Friday Feb 17 or Monday Feb 20 delivery.

BTW - I'm guessing the new iBooks will be called just "MacBooks", i.e., MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
 
I'm pretty pleased to see that Apple have launched two rather attractive Intel-based Macs today.

What I liked:
- Mag-safe power cord
- Built-in iSight & Front Row remote on the Macbook
- New iPhoto. Lets face it, I don't really care about the rest of the iLife and iWork apps.

What I'm confused over:
- Loss of modem. Come on, some people still find themselves in a hotel in some backward place where "wireless" and "broadband" are both met with confused stares. Still, I think this is like ditching the floppy disk - a step that only Apple was really brave enough to take first. I mean, both are useless in the current context, and people avoid using them, and yet PC makers still include them because people *think* they need them.
- Battery life on the new Macbook? Anyone care to give us a reading of the time remaining on a running Macbook with average settings for screen brightness and so on?
- Whats new in iWork, really?
- What is this new "Mini store" thing in iTunes. I must be blind because I can't see any hint of what its about.

What Mac fans guessed *right* in the pre-keynote rumours:
- Firewire port ditched. I mean, really, this was the one rumour floating around that I never would have believed for a second.

What we got wrong:
- Mac mini update
- Any sort of PVR / movie service / etc.
- Pretty much everything we speculated on in the rumours forums.

What I'm grateful for:
- That Macworld this year really was about new Mac hardware and software, and not about iPod this, iPod that.
 
ElDiablo: I don't really think they'd take a 'normal' Core Duo and clock it lower. That's where the ULVs (ultra low voltage) would come in. But they're more expensive. I certainly hope that the iBook-replacement (hate to see that name go... :/) starts with a Core Duo 1.67 GHz just like the MacBook Pro. The Pro could then move up to 2 and 2.16 GHz.
 
"ist teh stoopid!!11!!"? ... Yeah, I, erh, get this... And no, I don't think so.
 
As far as I can remember there was also a very cheap single core Yonah version. It makes sense to me that this will be used with the new iBooks.
I am quite impressed by the new MacBook but to me the battery duration would be an important spec as well. I am very suprised there is no information about that available. As some mentioned before, it makes me very suspicious..
 
they didn't ditch firewire completely, they still have the 400 though, i mean who uses firewire 800??? There are only two things that actually use firewire 800 that i am aware of at the time and they are both proffessional RAID harddrives.

We all know that apple has been ditching dialup with all their computers (iMac, Mac Mini, G5s) don't come with one anymore, but a lot of travelers still use dialup in hotels. granted more and more hotels are using wireless, but it's not 100% yet.

Macbook? it will take some time to get used to the name...better than Mactel
 
RGrphc2 said:
We all know that apple has been ditching dialup with all their computers (iMac, Mac Mini, G5s) don't come with one anymore, but a lot of travelers still use dialup in hotels. granted more and more hotels are using wireless, but it's not 100% yet.
Click to expand...
Well, if someone drops $2000 on a new MacBook and travels a lot, I'm sure a measley $50 more for a modem wouldn't be the end of the world. ;)
 
I don't like that Apple's ditching modems. Even if everyone had broadband (which...uhh...no), modems are still useful for faxing. And yes, people still send faxes!

And Apple's external modem is way too expensive. And naturally cumbersome.

symphonix said:
What Mac fans guessed *right* in the pre-keynote rumours:
- Firewire port ditched. I mean, really, this was the one rumour floating around that I never would have believed for a second.
Click to expand...
Huh? What? I just checked, and FireWire's still there. You practically gave me a heart attack, man! (I'd never heard this speculation to begin with, so maybe I misunderstood your point.)

I'm a little surprised that there's no FireWire 800, though (the old high-end PowerBook had it), especially since there's nothing else to take its place. I mean, you could argue that you don't need FireWire when you have USB2, but FireWire 800 is by far the fastest thing out there. *shrug* I really wonder what kind of devices I should buy now. Is FireWire 800 simply on its way out? Is Apple going to yank FireWire 400 with the next round of updates? Hrm...
 
RGrphc2 said:
they didn't ditch firewire completely, they still have the 400 though, i mean who uses firewire 800??? There are only two things that actually use firewire 800 that i am aware of at the time and they are both proffessional RAID harddrives.
Click to expand...

Erm, how about all that Lacie triple interface kit? (FW400/FW800/USB2). I have two of them (a 250gb hd and a dvd writer).
 
If you go to this page it seems to say that you don't need a stinking modem in your new macbook or imac http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/faxing/

I called up Apple tech support and they just didn't understand this at all. So, they are sending me a free modem, haha... what a crazy thing. The sadest thing is that I emailed Apple 3 times and even called up tech support a month ago with my isight and told a genius at the Apple store. They just won't change that page??? Makes no sense... are they building in efax or jfax support? Yes, some ISP's may allow faxing through your cable modem but I think Apple better fix that page or a lot of people are going to get free modems, or worse yet another lawsuit.
 
Anyway,

I am very happy how they turn MacBook Pro with duo, 256mb video card. Thats great! Only thing that disappointed me that they dont have DL Dvd. Grr.
 
Doesn't the recent G4 powerbooks superdrive support burning dual-layer DVDs? So, why didn't they use that one? I kinda believe it's supported but not mentioned. What do you think?
 
mi5moav: The OS supports it. Doesn't mean a modem is included with, what, the OS? ... Only because OS X supports colour printing, you also don't expect you don't need a printer or that you can suddenly print in colour on a black/white laser printer...?
 
Comment I read in another forum about the new MacBooks which somehow really started to irritate me:

does this means i can run 3dsmax in that mac laptop? do i need osx installed in it or can i just have windows?

sacrilegious !

Another was:

Exactly. All I want is a powerbook-sized XP laptop. So if there's an easy way to setup a "macbook pro" to boot with XP without the hassle, I'll go buy one. If you can even totally wipe OSX out, that's an added plus

Irritating !

EDIT: Just to add this forum is one largely populated by graphic designers/ photographers, the kind of people who will be buying macs.
 
Just think about it this way: Every MacBook sold adds to Mac OS X' marketshare in numbers, because it comes with an OS X license. Everyone who actually _buys_ a Mac could still be lured into keeping it a dual-boot experience or to later reinstall OS X completely (without Windows). And if you _meet_ someone with a MacBook which hasn't got OS X on it, you can still ask him or her: "Don't you feel stupid to have bought a secure computer and then compromising it by installing a virus, erh, I mean Windows?"
 
I just think there's that slight danger of Apple becoming best known as a designer of pretty computers rather than the creators of a brilliant OS.

In my opinion for a lot of people the initial allure of switching from pc to mac is, be it superficial or not, is the 'pretty' hardware and having that made people willing to give the OS a shot and after getting used to it they generally love it. Now a lot of these consumers who have spent their computing lives using Windows will just think what the hell, I'm not going to bother, lets just install Windows and have a pretty Mac casing.

Maybe good for Apple as a business, they'll sell more hardware but I can't help thinking it will lower or atleast not largely increase the amount of future Apple consumers who actually use Mac OS X.
 
mw84 said:
Comment I read in another forum about the new MacBooks which somehow really started to irritate me
Click to expand...

Don't let yourself be irritated by that too much. It's the overall experience (hardarware & software) that counts. The poor ingnorants want Windows? Let them have it! I don't pity masochists either. If they are graphic designer they pretty much disqualify as such for me when they seriously consider working under Windows on a Mac. There's absolutely no point. I'm not a graphic designer myself but am friends with several individuals who are (heck, my brother is one of them and he works for a company which is regarded as being very competent and creative) and none of them would consider that option even in their dreams.
You have to realize that there's different kind of graphic designers who play on different levels of quality. Consider that Corel is also used by some so called graphic designer.
 
doemel said:
Consider that Corel is also used by some so called graphic designer.
Click to expand...
Heh... never trust someone who claims to be a designer yet uses Corel products. :p

That's like trusting a doctor who still practices bloodletting!
 
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